How to Determine Automation Value and Focus

In the first of a four-part series on achieving greater returns from your automation investments, learn how to determine value in new automation spending and figure out where to start.

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Manufacturers spend millions of dollars every year replacing failing automation components, yet often find their processes work no better than they previously did. So how do you justify the value of that investment? Over the next few months, we’ll explore—from start to finish—how to break the cycle of failure and achieve better value from your automation investments.

In this, the first of our four-part series, we talk to experts about how to determine the value in new automation spending, and also how engineers and plant managers can determine which areas to focus on first.

The technological advances in automation technology often go unused when new devices are installed to replace failing components. In some respects, it’s like buying a smartphone and using it only to make phone calls. If you never take photos, send a text message, deposit checks or surf the Internet, then you’re not even coming close to taking full advantage of its capabilities.

That’s the situation many companies find themselves in despite spending significant amounts of money on automation products every year to keep their systems functioning. Most manufacturers use only 30-40 percent of a modern automation system’s capabilities, the result being that plants today—even those running on new technologies—are operating no better than they were with their old devices.

For nearly a decade, since the economic implosion in 2008, companies have been using replacement parts as a stopgap to keep production going and delay major investments. But that strategy could be nearing its end of life, along with increasingly obsolete automation systems. Massive downsizing in the U.S. manufacturing workforce over the past two decades, whether through layoffs, offshoring or retirements, compounds the problem.

“Overall headcount reductions have decimated plant workforces, which means there are fewer engineers, production supervisors, maintenance and technical support personnel to stay ahead of technology advances,” says Steve Malyszko, president and CEO of system integrator Malisko Engineering, a member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA).

So if your current technology is causing too many problems, nearing the end of the road or limiting your ability to achieve business objectives, how can you maximize returns when you do invest in new automation?

Ready, fire, aim doesn’t work in war any more than it does with automation projects. System integrators and automation suppliers point to the rules of engagement for achieving greater value from automation investments. The task of finding out what to spend, and where to spend it, invariably starts with a set of questions.

How is your process working?
It’s essential to establish a baseline by analyzing your current operations and how they function. This allows you to focus your investments on achieving greater returns from company assets.

“Until you can understand what’s going on inside your production process, you can’t know what direction to take in making new automation investments,” says Charlie Norz, I/O product manager for Wago. “That’s why data gathering and analysis have become so important.”

Analyzing the flow in the process also helps. Will Aja, vice president of customer operations for CSIA member Panacea Technologies, recommends talking to operators to understand how the flow works and how the system was designed.

“You also need to look at the system’s components and whether you’re taking advantage of the technology already in place,” Aja adds. “Many upgrades just take the brains of the previous system and put them in new plastic. You end up transferring a lot of dead code. It doesn’t really improve how the process works.”

Where is your plant at risk?
As the needs of your business change, it’s essential to identify where current systems won’t be able to meet new requirements. What are the greatest risks to achieving your production and cost goals? Consider a three- to five-year investment-planning horizon when analyzing your existing infrastructure.

Manufacturing infrastructures are now so old, everybody’s looking for direction, according to John Riess, global marketing lead for Integrated Architecture at Rockwell Automation. “The ability to respond to business challenges is constricted by legacy equipment that isn’t flexible or productive enough, suffers too much downtime, takes too long for changeovers, uses too much energy, or has component availability and gray market quality issues,” he says. “You need to invest to overcome these inefficiencies and reduce the risks to your business.”

Risk mitigation also involves evaluating the cost to your business if a critical system were to fail in the future. “The easiest risk to identify is when something is no longer working or components are no longer available,” says Stefan Werner, marketing manager for factory automation at Siemens. “Then you can set priorities based on how important that system is to overall production.”

Better diagnostics are key to any optimization effort because they can tell you where your process needs to be more efficient. “There’s a huge difference between migrating and modernizing,” adds Keith Moreland, manager of product marketing for the TIA Portal at Siemens. “When you migrate to a new version of a component, you don’t necessarily achieve any production improvements. Modernizing, on the other hand, can help you increase data collection and achieve greater productivity at lower cost. You have to look at the ROI. If you stick with legacy systems by just replacing parts, at some point you will be forced into an emergency migration or modernization. It’s easier and less risky to plan for modernization so that you can take it in steps.”

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